The confusion over the result of Saturday night’s Michigan-Western Michigan game is yet another example of how instant replay has complicated sports in pursuit of perfection, and FS1’s Nick Wright is using the opportunity to call out the technology’s uselessness.
Between the convoluted time-keeping system and the replay review of the Western Michigan player touching the ball, the technology that ultimately put 1 second back on the clock (and allowed Michigan to complete its comeback) only made the situation more confusing.
On First Things First, Wright delivered a rant arguing that replay review is bad “in all of its forms,” is often inaccurate, and spoils fans’ ability to experience the emotions of a game.
“Replay in all of its forms is bad in sports. There is no consistency. It opens far too much speculation about … corruption,” he said. “It’s bad for the fans, it’s bad for the viewers, and the cherry on top of this awful cake is it doesn’t actually make the product more accurate or fair.”
“Replay in all of its forms is bad in sports.”
Nick Wright brings the hammer down on instant replay and replay review following the debacle in Ann Arbor over the weekend 🎥🏈 pic.twitter.com/fDkyRiyy5h
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 7, 2026
Wright highlighted that, in Ann Arbor over the weekend, all the players and coaches on both teams reacted in real time to Michigan’s failed Hail Mary and apparent loss. For them, there was no controversy or confusion. Nobody thought there was actually a second left in the game. The same went for fans — until the Big Ten replay officials got word. Once NBC got involved, the situation only got stranger for viewers at home.
While officials eventually landed on a reasonable explanation, it felt spiritually inaccurate given what played out on the field in real time. This, Wright argued, happens more often than not.
“It removes the ability, as a fan, to fully and purely celebrate amazing moments because there’s always a ‘But wait, what if?'” he said.
“This was as clean as it got. There’s zeroes on the clock; the players are celebrating, should be over. But wait, let’s review it. For all of the times that replay corrects an obvious, clear egregious error, there’s five times on this show that we’re talking about a game ending differently because of a questionable overturn or replay decision. It doesn’t make things better.”
Sports leagues clearly feel more pressure in the age of gambling and social media to get these things right. Money is on the line, and any mistake will quickly be blasted out across the internet.
However, Wright is merely the loudest in a chorus of voices following the Michigan mix-up, arguing that adding more technology and layers of review has not actually quieted any of that noise.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is an Editorial Lead at Awful Announcing overseeing digital content and special projects. He lives in Phoenix and has covered sports media for Awful Announcing since 2023.